Name
Frederick Room
1887
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
20/02/1918
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
22741
Bedfordshire Regiment
4th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 2 C.
France
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial
Pre War
Frederick Room was born in 1887 in Dunstable, Beds the son of Samuel and Elizabeth Room (nee Bandy), and one of eight children.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at 1 South Place, Dunstable, Beds where his father was a Whiting Roller. They remained in Dunstable in 1901 but had moved to 25 St Mary Street, at which time Frederick was working as a metal sorter and his father was a Whitening Maker (probably in the straw hat trade). His mother died in 1902 and his father married again in 1907 to Elizabeth Janes and they had two more children, Frederick's half siblings.
He married Edith Amy Luck in 1908 in Hemel Hempstead and on the 1911 Census they were living with Edith's parents, Alfred and Sarah Luck, at 6 Two Waters Road, Hemel Hempstead, where he was working as a Rag Sorter. They had four children, Frederick, born late 1908, but died soon after, Annie Irene May (1911), Henry Frederick (1913 but died 1914), and Frederick Charles (1916). They lived at 117 Lower Marlowes, Hemel Hempstead. (N.B. His brother-in-law Alfred Luck , his wife and three children lived next door at no. 115 Marlowes).
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Watford and served with the 4th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment. He may have been sent to France in July 1916 when the 4th battalion was sent to the front and would have fought in the Battle of Ancre in November. At some point he was promoted to Lance Corporal.
During 1917 he would have seen action in Arras and Passschendaele, both encounters resulting in heavy casualties for the Battalion.
The circumstances of his death are not known but he was killed in action in France on 20 February 1918, however he has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, France.
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £10 10s and pay owing of £5 19s 3d. She also received a pension of £1 5s 5d a week for herself and her two children, Annie (b.1911) and Frederick Charles (b.1916) His brother William James Room was killed less than a month later on 25 March 1918, and brother-in-law Alfred Luck was killed on 13 November 1916.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.hemelheroes.com, www.daorumheritage.org.uk, www.hemelatwar.org.,
